Gold fell early in New York on Wednesday, a day after it ended below $650 an ounce on a rebounding dollar, as short selling, year-end profit taking and technical trading pushed the metal lower.
At 10:03 am EST (1503 GMT), February gold at the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange was down $6.40, or 1 percent, at $641.50 per ounce, traded in a range between $638.6 and $648.8.
"We are into the end of the year. A lot of trading has slowed down. Technicals have turned the market south," said Carlos Perez-Santalla at Hudson River Futures. "The dollar seems to be holding, and maybe rebounding going into the Christmas season here. That has also soured some of the longs out here who saw the market meeting resistance at $650," he said.
Perez-Santalla added that gold might find some resistance at $643.50, and then at $650. Joseph Guzzardi at Sabin Commodities said that gold's decline was "all dollar-related." "It's time of the year-end here. I think you are going to see a lot of people closing their books. You are going to see a lot of profit taking coming up the board," said Guzzardi.
Guzzardi pegged support at $635 for gold and $13.50 for silver. "The Asian market is pretty long right now. I think that there is some short selling going on upstairs in anticipation of weakness coming out of the Asian markets, and that's why the market has been drifting lower here. We don't want to be last ones to the party," said Ralph D'Esposito at RJ Futures.
The market now awaits the release of November US unemployment rate and nonfarm payrolls, due 8:30 am EST (1330 GMT) on Friday. Spot gold bullion was quoted at $636.50/637.25, lower than $642.30/$643.80 late on Tuesday. Bullion dealers put London's fix at $636.00.
NYMEX March silver was down 5.5 cents at $13.970 an ounce. Spot silver was quoted at $13.77/13.84, down from Monday's late quote at $13.81/13.88. Wednesday's fix was $13.68. NYMEX January platinum was up $4.30 at $1,138.0 an ounce. Spot platinum fetched $1,132.00/1,137.00. NYMEX March palladium fell $5.60 to $330.80 an ounce. Spot palladium traded at $324/329.